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Feature: The Wonder of Ugly Add-Ons

For those who hadn’t noticed, we recently posted our 3DS Circle Pad Pro review, which unsurprisingly prompted a broad range of opinions and comments. While the reaction to the add-on has undoubtedly been diverse, most agree on one thing: it’s ugly. Or, to quote our review, it "makes the console look like it's fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down". Ouch.

When thinking about unappealing add-ons for Nintendo handheld consoles, we realised that the Circle Pad Pro isn’t alone. There have been some monstrosities in the past, so we naturally decided to dig them up for everyone to look at. Brace yourselves — this won’t be pretty.

Booster Boy

Where's the Game Boy?

If you thought adding an extra Circle Pad and some shoulder buttons was clumsy, how about a Game Boy with an analogue stick, screen magnifier and extra speakers? That was the grand ambition of the Booster Boy.

In practice, your Game Boy is housed inside this unit, which devours four C batteries at a time. The only visible part of your handheld is the screen, with the peripheral taking over all controls, though quite why a Game Boy title needs an analogue stick is beyond us. While extra loud speakers and a magnifier may be helpful to some, this add-on takes a portable console and morphs it into a lump of plastic the size of a 1980s telephone. Does it successfully make the Game Boy more of a home-console equivalent? Nope. Is it portable and for use on the bus? Most definitely not.

Add-ons for yuppies

All plastic, all un-fashionable

We found these particular delights in an old gaming magazine, under the heading "New Gear for Yuppie Gamesters". We’ve never considered ourselves to be yuppie gamesters here at Nintendo Life, which may explain why none of us ever owned one of these.

Released by a company called Nuby and targeting ‘style-conscious Nintendo owners’, these two add-ons aren’t the worst to look at, but deserve to be highlighted for the crazy marketing. They may be slightly less horrendous than other peripherals, but they’re still lumps of plastic being clipped onto an innocent Game Boy. Nuby developed a number of accessories including screen lights and magnifiers, though we doubt that they were considered to be fashionable.

Game Boy Game Genie

These guys can't spell

Struggling gamers from the NES era are probably aware of Game Genie, a cartridge extension that gave access to a number of cheat codes to help you through the toughest games.

Well, there was also a Game Boy equivalent, offering the same dose of cheats and codes to conquer the greatest challenges. It wasn’t a particularly streamlined addition though, as it appears to be at least half the size of the handheld itself.

That said, it was an invaluable tool in the days when games were genuinely difficult. If you have any doubts about how ‘rad’ Game Genie was, check out the original trailer for the NES version below.

Super Wide Gear

Never has 'Super' been more inappropriate

It may seem like we’re picking on Nintendo’s handhelds for having ugly, unnecessary add-ons, so for some balance we’ve uncovered a monstrosity released for the Sega Game Gear. This was a handheld that boasted powerful graphics and a colour display, technically superior to the Game Boy.

While it may have lost that handheld war, it did nevertheless join in with the trend for needless accessories. We present the Super Wide Gear, a poorly-named screen magnifier that also seems to take up too much room for its own good. In a pretty massive oversight, it doesn't even seem to have been designed to fit properly with the Game Gear. Let's overlook the fact that Sega's handheld also had a bigger screen than the Game Boy, so it didn't really need to be magnified in the first place.

Are those meant to be ears?

So there you have it, a range of unattractive add-ons to remind us all that the Circle Pad Pro isn’t the worst that has hit the market. As long as there are handheld gaming consoles there’ll be lumps of useless plastic ready to be clipped on for use. As our final example, these GBA speakers show how an add-on can transform a handheld into a loving homage to famous icons. Dumbo, anyone?

What are your memories of atrocious accessories and add-ons? Have you owned any peripherals that you'd rather forget? Reveal all in the comments below.

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

The CPP isn't really all that bad.yes, it's a bit bulky, but that just makes the 3ds more comfortable to hold.Because of this and the fact of there is a second CP and 2 shoulder buttons, I dont mind the "ugly" bit that sticks out. i dont find it that bad.

So, if you dont like the CPP, you dont like it, its your opinion. No one is forcing you to buy it.

Those things are pretty damn ugly, but wow, I never knew that Nintendo had an analog stick for GB way back then. On another note, I still think the CPP looks pretty good, even better looking when compared to these things.

My problem with the circle pad is that it looks so asymmetrical with the pad sticking out there. And out of all add-ons that were mentioned, it's the only one that has a good chance of becoming required. THAT's what's annoying to me. I didn't need the other ugly lumps of plastic, but I may be forced into getting the circle pad.

My GBA had a TV Tuner, which let me watch up to four terrestrial channels in squinty-vision. However, I was able to hook my Gamecube to it, thus giving birth to a weird curiosity for eons to come. Haven't tried it on my PS3 yet though, which I bet would be freaky....

I can't believe those GBA screen lights aren't on the list. I was UGLY. I used it with my GBA at night. It was a book light for games and burned batteries fast. The CCP should have added to battery life.

I have the "Super Wide Gear", a "slim" version of the "Booster Boy"...and a few others I can't remember...maybe one or two for the SNES (Which weren't useless, they could let you play your Gameboy games on the SNES and in colour too!)

I had a screen magnifyer for the game boy that also had lights so you can play in the dark. It was powered on 2 AA's and folded into a small rectangle that fit perfect in my gameboy case. It was perfect for what I needed, totally portable, and clipped on snugly using the large screw holes on the back of the game boy. Some periphials make up for the shortcomings of a system. The GB booster however is ugly and completely unnecessary.

Mom has told me before about her friend/relative/I forget who had a gameboy with all the different add-ons and how it wound up being about the size of a brick. Maybe it was the booster boy. I don't know but I'm happy spending my time with gameboy games on my 3DS.

@3Dangerous3Dash - they could have just not used a screen at all, just a piece of plastic where the screen would go. It would have cost almost nothing, it wouldn't have used the battery at all, and it would have been just as useful as the screen that they did use!

I had clip-on jumbo buttons and a lighted screen magnifier for my Game Boy Color, but the buttons actually made the games less responsive, and the screen looked blurry under the cheap plastic lens of the magnifier, so I ditched both of those accessories and got a cheap little worm light for playing in the dark.

@Mok: Were you referring to the "Central Committee of the Communist Party" or the rather benign "Combined Community Codec Pack" ?

It was acceptable in the 90s...Seriously, the more buttons, more lights, more wacky add-ons you had on your handheld/stereo stack/vcr, the richer you looked back then.Loving that Booster Boy, it's like an Iron Maiden for your Game Boy.

I'd say it was the right decision for Saitek to concentrate on PC peripherals later.The Game Genie trailer reminds me of the comic artist in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and the videogame dream in the 6th film. As someone who likes its handheld sound with a bit more bass i like the idea of the GBA speakers. I guess they only make it louder and more distorted though.

Personally i only had a magnifying glass that also lit the GB. Didn't use it very often because of what @StarDust(57.) mentioned. I only found out that the the problem was called bluriness and not size when i got my Game Boy color.

I had GBC a combo pack that included add on speakers (to be conected under the console) which made the GBC taller, a controller clip-on (transformed the D-Pad into an analog stick and the buttons transfomed into taller, springy ones, gosh I loved this one so much I broke the analog stick) and a huge light-up magnifiying glass.

It was a lot like that Booster Boy, but each add-on was independent and could be used alone. The poor GBC looked huge and overly hi-tech when all of them were on at the same time

I know I've seen a TV Tuner for the GBA, but it was unlicensed and I can feel pretty confident it only worked on the original GBA (it was a screen that clipped over the top of the system and into the cart slot).What I think is the most ridiculous Game Boy related add-on: someone actually bothered to make an adapter to fit the Game Genie into the Super Game Boy. (made in the console's lifetime but I don't think it was ever advertised so it's no wonder nobody's heard of it )

@King Mike: I wonder if you could use the SNES Game Genie to modify the GB rom code in the Super Game Boy? You'd just simply need to use an address translator and determine the offset for the GB rom data.

EDIT: Can that idea, since the SNES Game Genie wasn't compatible with carts that used expansion pins.

I want the Circle Pad Pro because it is removable. I was thinking of holding off on a redesign, then I realized that centering the unit with two analogue sticks would require an XL-sized unit. Which really cuts down on the portability. There's a reason why my gaming unit of choice is this and not the upcoming Vita lol